Kent Bush: Even in the worst of times, God is here

Coffee cup Christianity has done as much to turn the world against God than any act of evil ever could.

Those happy, often misinterpreted verses on coffee mugs are often used to give the idea that life as a believer in God is easy because “God is love” and you can have anything you ask for as long as you have enough faith is non-Biblical. Believing that God owes you wealth, health and happiness is a lie.

In John 16:33, Jesus told his followers that in this world you will have troubles. But He told them not to worry about troubles here because he had overcome the world and their eternity would be free of troubles.

I think if you are listening to Jesus what you will hear is that even his followers will lose children to horrible accidents, get fired from jobs they love and maybe even get cancer. But in an eternal perspective, the suffering during this life pales in comparison to the rewards of the next.

If you don’t believe in God or if you believe in Santa Claus God, that seems unfair.

It leads you to ask how a loving God can let bad things happen. That is one of the many questions the movie, “God’s Not Dead” — which is still in theaters — tries to answer. The movie features several storylines, but the main story in the movie is about a college freshman pressured to admit there is no God by a professor. He is forced to defend his belief in God during three presentations in class.

They argue cosmology, morality and philosophy during their debate. I enjoyed the movie and the fact that it rationally presented and resolved all of these various storylines.

For the amount of spiritual surgery that went on in each of the lives touched in those separate stories, the resolution of each might have been a little too clean.

Trust me, Neil deGrasse Tyson won’t see this movie and begin attending services at First Baptist Church next weekend. But there was a lot of truth presented in an effective and entertaining way and I do think the movie is powerful in that sense.

But tragedy will always bring out those who question God’s power and goodness. On May 20, 2013 a tornado ripped through Moore, Okla. That tornado leveled two elementary schools. I drove down 19th Street in Moore last weekend and the devastation from that day is still easy to imagine as you see homes, schools and thousands of trees destroyed by some of the strongest winds ever recorded.

Why did God let seven children die at Plaza Towers Elementary while every child escaped Briarwood Elementary’s halls alive? Belief in God requires you to believe that he sees the entire film while we see just one frame. He understands how everything — good and bad — comes together.

Page 2 of 2 - We do not.

I have often heard it said that if we understood the universe the way God does, he would grant us everything we want because we would pray for the right things. This perspective is the focus of another movie set to come out on the anniversary of the Moore tornado.

“Where Was God” is a documentary funded by Elevate Church in Moore and several other groups to tell the story of survivors of the Moore tornado and an equally devastating storm in Joplin, Mo. in 2011 and how their lives were changed forever. The movie will shine a light on uplifting stories to show how hope grew even out of the most devastating circumstances.

That’s real-world Christianity. There is no promise that good news and sunshine will fill the headlines of your daily life.

The promise to believers is that even in the worst of times, God is there and He and other believers walk through the dark times with us.